​Presidential elections in Russia, which seem to leave no room for surprises, will take place in less than two months, on March 17 to be exact. So far, the Central Electoral Commission in Moscow has registered four candidates. Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia since 2000, with a short break during a conversation with Dmitry Medvedev, received his candidacy card on Monday, January 29. The other three contenders for the post of head of state are current members of the Moscow parliament and are Putin’s face rather than real political competitors. All registered candidates have one thing in common: they support Russia’s war in Ukraine, which is why they got on the international sanctions list. The correspondent of Hotnews.ro analyzed public information about those who aspire to lead the Russian Federation in one of the most difficult periods of its history.

Putin ran as an independent

The decision to register Vladimir Putin’s candidacy was made by the Central Election Commission in Moscow on Monday. In these elections, Putin is running as an independent candidate, although he was supported by the ruling party “United Russia”, as well as the formations “Just Russia – For Truth”, “Party of Pensioners” and “Party of Matters”.

It should be noted that the elections will take place in the context of protests by women in Russia, who demand the return home of their husbands or sons mobilized for the war in Ukraine. Although the protests are not large in scale, criticism of Putin is becoming increasingly visible within the country.

Also, according to approximate estimates, since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine and against the background of the September 2022 mobilization, almost a million Russian citizens have left the country.

Opponents of Putin are also on the list of international sanctions

On January 5, Vladyslav Davankov, currently a member of the State Duma from the “Oameni Noy” formation, was registered as the first candidate to participate in the presidential elections. He was born on February 25, 1984 and is a businessman who started his career in one of the largest cosmetic companies in Russia. Because of his support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, he entered the list of those who fell under Western sanctions.

On the same day, another member of the State Duma, Leonid Slutsky, was registered from the LDPR, which was previously headed by Volodymyr Zhirynovskyi. After his death, Slutsky took over the leadership of the formation. The politician was born on January 4, 1968. Since 2014, he has been on the Western sanctions list for openly supporting the annexation of Crimea and the deployment of Russian troops on the territory of Ukraine. In 2018, Slutsky was at the center of a scandal in which two female journalists accused him of sexual harassment. Shortly afterwards, he said in an interview that the scandal was staged, but said he was ready to help resolve the conflict. So far, this case has not prevented him from continuing his political activities.

Another registered candidate is Mykola Kharitonov, who represents the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and is also a member of the State Duma. Kharitonov was born on October 30, 1948. An agronomist by profession, he held various government positions, starting in 1990, when he was elected a deputy of the parliament of Soviet Russia. He is also on the sanctions list for supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The strategy is to show that the anti-war opposition is very small

There are others who have announced their intention to run for office. Among them, Boris Nadezhdin is the most discussed possible candidate: he openly speaks out against Russia’s war in Ukraine. Borys Nadeytin was born on April 26, 1963, an engineer by profession. For many years, he contributed to the development of science, worked as a teacher. In 1997-1998, Nadezhdin worked in the Apparatus of the Government of the Russian Federation, first as an adviser to the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Boris Nemtsov, then as an assistant to the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Serhiy Kiriyenko. His name is associated with participation in the development of the statutes of Transneft and Gazprom. In 1999-2003, he was a deputy of the State Duma. In the March 2024 elections, Nadezhdin plans to run for the center-right Civic Initiative party, founded in 2013 by former Economy Minister Andriy Nechaev.

The Central Election Commission reported that Nadiydin, like other candidates who declared their intention to participate in the elections, has until January 31 to submit at least 100,000 signatures in support. Many experts doubt that it will be registered. At the same time, some political scientists are considering a scenario where Nadezhdin will still be registered to prove that the score of the anti-war opposition is very low.

Also, the Central Election Commission has already rejected four candidacies. Among them is journalist Kateryna Duntseva, who intended to participate in these elections as an independent candidate. She expressed her distaste for the war in Ukraine and support for the release of political prisoners. It is known from her biography that she was born on April 24, 1983 in the city of Tver, where she has been working as a journalist since 2003. Not a member of any political party, but announced her intention to found her own group called “East”. The formal reason for refusal of registration is “the presence of 100 errors in the submitted documents.” Duntseva said that she would support Nadedin if he was registered.

Whoever is elected president of Russia will remain in this position until May 2030. The institution of the future head of state is scheduled for May 7.